Kaidakunna ‘adhimoun Revisited: Farida Benlyazid’s Ruses de femmes and Assia Djebar’s La beauté de Joseph

This article analyzes how two Francophone Maghrebian women’s works can be seen as partaking in a global movement known as Islamic feminism. Farida Benlyazid’s film and Assia Djebar’s book engage the Qur’anic verse that refers to the failed attempt by Potiphar’s wife to seduce the prophet Joseph. I examine how these works bear on the debate between Islamic feminists (Muslim believers working within their faith to achieve gender equality) and secular feminists. In addition, I show how Benlyazid’s and Djebar’s readings of verse 12:28 demonstrate a commitment to both the global and the local (their native Morocco and Algeria, respectively).